SAFARI - Kampala to Mboro NP

Well this is the beginning of the trip of a lifetime... Despite some early hesitations and adjustments to the utter chaos of Uganda, we spent two incredible weeks travelling across the central and western parts of the country. What an unbelievable place. The pictures will speak for themselves (with my odd comment of course). Enjoy.

This was our route. We left Kampala and headed southwest towards the Rwanda and Congo borders. The national parks are shown in green starting with Mboro, Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth and, lastly, Murchison Falls in the north.
Couldn't resist the touristo shot


One of our daily fruit stands. We were spoiled with these...

We got really excited the first time we saw a warthog, but the novelty slowly faded as they were like squirrels.
We took a boat out into Lake Mboro and were able to get really close to this guy.

The fishermen use sticks as floats for the nets which act as major obstacles when you're trying to get back to shore.

Hyena food just outside the den. This picture was taken just after we got charged by a water buffalo. Pretty scary, luckily the guide was able to scare it off with his gun. Almost peed my pants.
The hyena seemed pretty spooked by the water buffalo too.

This hippo decided to join us for breakfast. They are enormous!

Some strange stripped animal...

An impala at sunset.

Kisoro, Bunyoni, and Bwindi NP

From Mboro we continue south to the town of Kisoro, right on the Rwanda border. This was the part of the trip that we had been really looking forward to - Gorilla tracking!


Even on day 3, the poverty had become overwhelming. A bright point was that the local communities directly benefit from the influx of tourist dollars. The national parks give 20% of all income back to the community. The gorillas have now become a large part of the local economy. They are worth more alive than dead and poaching has almost stopped completely. Our guides were former poachers...

It was about a 3 hour hike down in the valley where the gorillas had nested the night before.

We arrive to the male silverback (about 500-600 lbs) sitting in a clearing eating. He was completely apathetic to our arrival. He was magnificent! He did get a little too close for comfort though... within an arms length!

This was one of the juvenile males in the troop. This troop had about 14 animals.

The 3 year old just hung out in the tree not really concerned about us at all.

After about an hour, they packed up and headed off into the dense bush. This experience was worth the safari alone.

A typical mud hut on the hike back out of the valley.

Heather had to be really sneaky when she was taking pictures in town that evening. She was shooting blind with her camera at her waist. People didn't always like their picture taken...

The following morning, we left Kisoro and drove a little ways back east to Lake Bunyoni. We stayed at a beautiful place right on the water and spent the afternoon paddling a dugout canoe around the lake checking things out. This man was headed to the market on the opposite shore with goods to sell.

These kids were going back to school after their lunch break. A little different than a yellow school bus.The following morning, we packed up and drove to Bwindi Impenetrable NP to the north of Bunyoni. Pretty alright ride.

The typical morning mist of the mountains in the south.

All the tilling is done by the women, by hand!


The view from our tent that evening. I have never seen a jungle this thick before, almost impenetrable...

We were able to go for a quick hike the next day to these falls in the forest.

Queen Elizabeth NP

From Bwindi, we drove north to the southern part of Queen Elizabeth NP, called Ishasha.


These guys were called topi and almost looked purple in some spots.

And this is what we came to Ishasha to see, tree climbing lions! Apparently, its the only place in the world that lions are known to climb trees.

We were told that it is thought they climb the trees to get a breeze and cool down in the afternoon heat. It may also be a better vantage point for hunting.

We felt like prey.

They weren't doing much hunting...

Waterbucks. Huge. We drove further north through the park and arrive at a place called Mweya for a few days.

This is the national bird,the crested crane.

Crater lake with some water buffalo.

We arranged for a boat trip down a channel connecting the two major lakes in the park. The density along the river was like nothing we had seen.

Hippos every where.

Near the end of the trip, we came across a heard of elephants.

More were waiting for us when we got back in the truck.

Our accommodations were pretty gheto here, so we poached seats at the luxury accommodation.
This is the Jambura gorge that came out of no where. We hiked in to find the chimps.

Poo flingers!
Some more baboons along the way.